Zhou Huan stared, stunned, at the infant cradled in Green Tara’s arms. The child’s eyes seemed vacant and untethered, fixing squarely on Zhou Huan. A wave of something akin to kinship washed over him, spinning through his thoughts: Could this be Xiao He’s child? If so, then it was my child, Zhou Huan’s child!

A seductive, intoxicating fragrance began to emanate from around Green Tara. This aroma could bewilder the mind and shatter reason; for anyone with weak cultivation, it would cause their vital energy to surge wildly out of control. As Green Tara began to release this aura, the surrounding celestial deities felt instantly uneasy and swiftly employed their techniques to seal off their senses of smell.

Zhou Huan’s primary concern at that moment was Hong Kun, whose injuries had only recently healed. Of the four present, Hong Kun possessed the weakest foundation in cultivation, making Zhou Huan fear he would lose his composure, causing the entire Jiugong Tianmen Zhen (Nine Palaces Heavenly Gate Formation) to collapse on its own.

“Hong Kun, hold your breath. Try to breathe through your skin,” Zhou Huan constantly urged, reminding Hong Kun to utilize the breathing technique of the Shoushi Sect—breathing through the skin. This technique was unprecedented; ancient lore spoke of the Turtle Breath Method, where breathing slowed to such an extent that a person could still survive. But Zhou Huan’s skin-breathing method, learned from studying animals, was specifically designed for those who handled the dead or spirits to effectively avoid noxious gases, most notably the stench of decomposition.

Of course, Shi Bingyuan and Tian Xiong were also familiar with and adept at skin breathing; Zhou Huan’s reminder was merely for everyone’s immediate benefit.

Observing Green Tara after she had released her powerful miasma, her face, for the first time, broke into a stiff, corpse-like smile, as if her gambit had succeeded. Then, her mouth opened wide, and she let loose a wail that seemed powerful enough to tear the very heavens apart. Her cry was immediately followed by the infant’s weeping. This synchronized crying created a bizarre, buzzing sound that pierced the ears, inducing a strange drowsiness.

Zhou Huan’s body began to sway. Suddenly, he felt something was deeply wrong; a thread of profound sorrow was woven into the sound, a feeling that irresistibly brought tears to the eyes. In an instant, he felt himself traversing the cosmos, witnessing legions of limbless, broken infants, each face stained with tears of suffering and longing for their parents.

Zhou Huan instinctively reached out to grasp at these infants floating in the void, but he felt his hand brush against something cold and solid. Snapping back to his senses, he flung his eyes open to find Green Tara’s sharp talons clamped around his wrist. A quick glance to the side revealed the truth, and Zhou Huan instantly knew he had been tricked. He violently wrenched his hand free from Green Tara’s grip, reforming his initial hand seal. Looking over, he saw Gui Tai’s body immediately recoiling backward into the air.

“Hahaha! Your concentration is lacking, yet you dare set up such a grand formation? It’s nothing but a joke!” Gui Tai spoke while simultaneously spewing a cloud of mist. This vaporous substance, which seemed like potent poison, diffused into the air; wherever it landed on the skin, that patch instantly lost all sensation.

Only then did Zhou Huan realize Gui Tai’s intention: to use this method to dismantle the formation before it even had a chance to materialize successfully. A faint curve touched the corner of Zhou Huan’s mouth; he had the situation assessed. But just then, he saw Green Tara fling the infant in her hands into the air. As the child spun once in mid-air, his body redirected towards the formation’s other seated participants, the first target being Hong Kun, who had already been struggling.

Green Tara herself floated in the air, chanting incantations in a language unknown to them. The more she chanted, the more active the infant within the formation became.

Sensing imminent danger, Zhou Huan immediately hurled his magical implement, the Copper Coin Sword, with incredible speed. The sword, trailing golden-yellow light, shot directly toward the infant suspended in the air.

Zhou Huan settled into a powerful stance, executing a fierce hand seal and chanting the Soul-Shattering Curse. The sword’s speed became even more preternatural, its light gathering energy, intensifying the pressure on the entire scene.

Old Gui Tai was also desperately reciting his own spell, but upon seeing Zhou Huan’s sword relentlessly pursuing the infant—following its every move and closing the distance—Gui Tai murmured softly, “To be willing to kill your own flesh and blood, Zhou Huan, what are you incapable of doing?”

Hearing those words, Zhou Huan’s composure instantly fractured. Pausing for just a fraction of a second, he exerted force with his legs, launching himself horizontally, catching the sword with one hand before flicking it back towards his seat.

At that precise moment, Zhou Huan drew an Exorcism Talisman from somewhere on his person and swiftly slapped it onto the infant. Looking back, the infant was already descending towards the lower anchor point of the formation on the ground.

To Zhou Huan’s utter astonishment, despite his speed, Green Tara seized the momentary lapse to breach his section of the formation, tearing down the banner anchoring his array. This effectively neutralized the vital energy flow for Zhou Huan’s quadrant, unless the seated participant possessed extraordinary power capable of generating a counter-current to sustain his base.

The deities stationed in Zhou Huan’s direction were already disoriented by Green Tara’s series of disruptive maneuvers and were trying to stabilize their divine energy, never anticipating the sheer speed Gui Tai possessed.

At Tian Xiong’s station, seeing Zhou Huan’s anchor point compromised, he immediately channeled his energy to assist. True Qi struck the flagpole of Zhou Huan’s banner, generating a sharp, upward current of energy. Tian Xiong then shouted at the top of his lungs, “Master, be careful!”

Even without Tian Xiong’s warning, Zhou Huan had already seen the danger. He acknowledged the acumen of his disciple; Tian Xiong could foresee that if Zhou Huan attempted to repair the banner himself, he would inevitably walk into a strike from Gui Tai. If he chose to confront Gui Tai directly, the formation anchor would break, and repairing it afterward would not be easy; moreover, the entire formation’s capabilities would be severely damaged.

Zhou Huan exhaled slowly, turning his hand back to block Gui Tai with his Heavenly Silkworm Gauntlet. Finally settling back stably at his array point, he watched Gui Tai shoot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow toward the lower anchor point to retrieve the infant. Green Tara then drifted into the air, her eyes sweeping back and forth across the participants within the formation.

“Green Tara, stop with the parlor tricks. Let me inform you first: this formation is called the Jiugong Tianmen Zhen. If you can break it, you might trouble us for ten years or eight, but one thing is certain—you will cause no more disruption here. Put the child down now, or today I must fulfill the duty of a father.”

“What, seeking revenge?”

“It must be done!”

At this moment, the atmosphere grew exceptionally tense. Upon hearing Zhou Huan’s words, Green Tara burst into laughter instead. She held the infant securely, stroking the child’s head with one hand, then unfastened the top of her garment, revealing a greenish teat, which she used to feed the infant. The child greedily consumed the yellowish-green fluid emanating from Gui Tai’s body.

Zhou Huan watched, his heart aching. Seeing the child in this state proved that it had lost its vital human spark; at best, it was an unnamable spirit, no longer capable of returning to Xiao He’s womb for rebirth. At this point, Zhou Huan was utterly resolved. He knew that regardless of whether the child was biologically his, it was now in the same irreparable condition as Gui Tai.

“Disciples, activate the formation!” Zhou Huan called out softly. His disciples, along with the invited celestial deities, immediately took up their fighting stances, drawing their respective magical artifacts and aiming them at Green Tara.

Gui Tai maintained her stiff smile. Hearing Zhou Huan command the activation, she did not panic. Instead, she took the hairpin from her hair and viciously stabbed it into the infant’s Baihui point on the crown of its head, just after it finished feeding. The infant’s facial expression contorted rapidly, its features seeming to shrink inward simultaneously, its breathing ragged. Then, a purplish mark on its forehead suddenly appeared to open like a hole, from which erupted an intensely powerful beam of black light. This beam was conspicuous even in the night sky; once it shone into the formation, the infant—from somewhere—produced a set of armor identical to Gui Tai’s. The two spirits were now truly shoulder-to-shoulder.

That tendril of black energy extending into the formation must have been the infant’s nascent spirit (yuanshen). This yuanshen sat at the bottom, engaging the deity guarding the lower anchor. The two figures above prepared to assail the seated participants in other directions, starting with the deity above. Each of the two spirits materialized a sharp weapon in hand—one a hanging rope, the other a golden chain.

The deity guarding the upper position was the commander of the Heavenly Court’s Armory, wielding the Myriad Transformation Spear, which could lengthen or shorten at will. While the deity’s physical avatar battled Gui Tai and the infant, his yuanshen remained seated, unmoving, just as the infant’s yuanshen sat below, contesting the resolve of the lower deity. The avatar above engaged in a one-on-one contest.

Zhou Huan understood Gui Tai’s plan. If the top and bottom of the Heavenly Gate Formation were breached, it would be like punching a massive hole through a circular array, allowing the breaker to launch attacks upon the surrounding array points at will—a tactic known as Zhi zhi shi di er sheng (Establish the territory, then be born), with her ultimate goal being to destroy Zhou Huan’s formation base.

Zhou Huan would not allow her such an easy victory; he clearly had his own stratagem. He stabilized the Heavenly Silkworm Gauntlet on his hand and spoke calmly to his disciples and the remaining deities: “Our Jiugong Tianmen Zhen is infinitely mutable. It follows the arrangement of the Nine Stars above, alternating according to the defensive method of the Heavenly Gate. Even if she engages the seated participant above in a magic duel, I will make her fight every seated participant here simultaneously.”

This, perhaps, was the true mystery of the Jiugong Tianmen Zhen; otherwise, Zhou Huan would not have chosen this formation to counter the inhuman Gui Tai. This was the way of righteous paths—easy to enter, easy to destroy the crooked path.